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History wants so badly for Cleopatra to be beautiful. Like they can’t conceive of Rome being intimidated by anything less

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Mama cat encourages her kitten to escape

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Heather Mahler on Instagram

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How to Finish

I drew this poster for Jon Acuff and his FINISH book tour. Big thanks to Jon for this collaboration, his book has some great ideas about how to complete creative and life goals.

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Susanna and the Elders, Restored (Left)

Susanna and the Elders, Restored with X-ray (Right)

Kathleen Gilje, 1998

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Stranger Things is an amazing show. I can’t recommend it enough.

This comic isn’t very spoilery but it won’t make a lot of sense until you’ve watched the show. The entire first season is on Netflix. Go check it out!

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I lose more hair in the shower in the morning than you have on your whole head.

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How to Handle Having TOO MUCH To Do

So let’s say you’re in the same boat I am (this is a running theme, have you noticed?) and you’ve just got, like, SO MUCH STUFF that HAS to get done YESTERDAY or you will DIE (or fail/get fired/mope). Everything needs to be done yesterday, you’re sick, and for whatever reason you are focusing on the least important stuff first. What to do!

Take a deep breath, because this is a boot camp in prioritization.

Make a 3 by 4 grid. Make it pretty big. The line above your top row goes like this: Due YESTERDAY - due TOMORROW - due LATER. Along the side, write: Takes 5 min - Takes 30 min - Takes hours - Takes DAYS.

Divide ALL your tasks into one of these squares, based on how much work you still have to do. A thank you note for a present you received two weeks ago? That takes 5 minutes and was due YESTERDAY. Put it in that square. A five page paper that’s due tomorrow? That takes an hour/hours, place it appropriately. Tomorrow’s speech you just need to rehearse? Half an hour, due TOMORROW. Do the same for ALL of your tasks

Your priority goes like this:

5 minutes due YESTERDAY

5 minutes due TOMORROW

Half-hour due YESTERDAY

Half-hour due TOMORROW

Hours due YESTERDAY

Hours due TOMORROW

5 minutes due LATER

Half-hour due LATER

Hours due LATER

DAYS due YESTERDAY

DAYS due TOMORROW

DAYS due LATER

At this point you just go down the list in each section. If something feels especially urgent, for whatever reason - a certain professor is hounding you, you’re especially worried about that speech, whatever - you can bump that up to the top of the entire list. However, going through the list like this is what I find most efficient.

Some people do like to save the 5 minute tasks for kind of a break between longer-running tasks. If that’s what you want to try, go for it! You’re the one studying here.

So that’s how to prioritize. Now, how to actually do shit? That’s where the 20/10 method comes in. It’s simple: do stuff like a stuff-doing FIEND for 20 minutes, then take a ten minute break and do whatever you want. Repeat ad infinitum. It’s how I’ve gotten through my to do list, concussed and everything.

You’ve got this. Get a drink and start - we can do our stuff together!

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WONDER WOMAN // The Feminum Mystique: Part 2 (1976)

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The Creative Act of Listening to a Talking Frog

Kermit the Frog gives a talk on creativity and creative risk-taking

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Brienne impressed by fierce little girls from the North

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I seriously could have done something far more useful with my time…

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I've been hesitant to send this but I think I have to tell you. I've given up all hope of ever becoming an artist because of you. I used to think I was good but my outlook on life has been getting worse, and it's at a point now where I can't see why I should go on. This is your fault. I worked so hard on my art, but it will never matter because you will always be better, more popular, and no one will know my name. I hope you remember next time you think you're great that you're not. I'm proof.

Ugh no

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Unsolved Mysteries

Some interesting reading for a rainy day.

Ambrose Bierce - A famous Civil War-era writer decides to leave his cushy life to go to Mexico, only to disappear forever.

Agent 335 - One of the first U.S. spies was a woman, but who?

Ancestral Puebloans - What happened to the ancient people in the Four Corners region (once called “Anasazi”)? And why is there evidence of cannibalism?

The Axeman of New Orleans - This guy won’t stop coming after people with an axe until everybody plays jazz music.

The Baychimo - When winter strikes, a ship sheds its crew–and then decides to take off without them.

The Canneto di Caronia Fires - Mysterious fires keep popping up in this small Sicilian town.

Çatalhöyük - A 9,500-year-old city in Turkey had everything going for it, and yet it was abandoned.

The Chicago Tylenol Murders - Someone laces Tylenol with poison and descends an entire city into chaos.

The Dancing Plague - People are stricken with the need to dance, some to their deaths.

D. B. Cooper - An unknown man hijacked a plane, extorted hundreds of thousands, and then parachuted to freedom.

The Dyatlov Pass Incident (tw: photo of a dead body) - Several experienced mountain hikers go into a mountain range in Russia and die of unknown causes. [see also]

Elisa Lam - A woman, seemingly pursued by an unseen foe, disappears, only to be found inside her hotel’s water tower two weeks later.

Erdstall - There are thousands of still-standing, ancient tunnels beneath central Europe, but no one knows what they’re for. [see also]

Genghis Khan’s Tomb - One of the greatest and most successful rulers of all time, but no one can find his final resting place.

The Hinterkaifeck Murders - Unexplained noises, missing house keys, and an entire family found dead in rural Germany.

The Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum Theft - Some hacks in police uniforms steal a bunch of priceless art, including a Rembrandt.

Japan’s Ghost Ship Problem (NEW!) - Ships from North Korea keep showing up on Japan’s shores… filled with mutilated corpses.

The Jian Seng (NEW!) - A giant ship is found floating with no crew and no one knows where it came from.

Jimmy Hoffa - A teamster with mob ties disappears, theories abound.

Joseph Newton Chandler III (NEW!) - Is this dead identity thief the Zodiac Killer? And if so, what is his real name?

The Joyita - Crew members abandon a real unsinkable ship, but why?

The Lighthouse Mystery - Several Scottish lighthouse keepers disappear abruptly.

Lori Erica Ruff (NEW!) - An identity thief dies and no one can figure out who she really was.

The Lost Colony (on Roanoke Island) - A bunch of white people decide to try and colonize an island and it doesn’t go well.

The Lost Dutchman Mine - In unforgiving territory lies a lost treasure just waiting to be found–if you don’t die first.

The Lost Nazi Plunder - The nazis stole hoards of important items, including art and cultural artifacts. Where are they now? [see also]

The Mary Celeste - A sailing ship in working order is found, still at sea, without a crew.

Monsieur Chouchani (NEW!) - Who was this mysterious Jewish teacher and mentor of Elie Weisel who dressed like a vagabond?

The Oakville Blobs - Gelatinous blobs of an unknown substance rain from the sky.

The Paris Catacombs - A seemingly infinite series of tunnels filled with bones, artwork, and missing explorers. [see also]

The Phaistos Disc - A mysterious disc, thousands of years old and covered in strange symbols, is found in Crete.

Rongorongo - An undecifered set of glyphs from Easter Island, possibly a completely independent language.

The Tamam Shud Case (tw: photo of a dead body) - A body shows up on a beach in Australia, and how it got there is wrapped in mystery and lies.

Tarrare - A man who couldn’t stop eating, anything and everything.

UVB-76 - A strange radio station in Russia broadcasts a constant buzz, broken only by strange readings of names and numbers.

The Voynich Manuscript - An unbreakable code in an ancient manuscript full of strange drawings–what’s not to like?

The Woman in the Tree (aka Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm?) - A body turns up stuffed into a tree trunk, becomes a local rallying cry.

The Wow! Signal - A strong radio signal from space still has researchers stunned and baffled.

(These are the most reliable unsolved stories I could find. There are many others that require more sources to be believed or already have very plausible answers.)

Know a good one that isn’t listed? Let me know!

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